First ECHR judgments on individual applications about human rights violations by Russia expected this year

Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has predicted that the first judgments on individual applications submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) about human rights violations by Russia will be issued this year.

"Those cases that concern violations of human rights, individual disputes between an individual and a state that are submitted to the ECHR for events in Donbas and annexed Crimea are accepted by the court and communicated. The ECHR president pointed to 3,000 cases, but there is one detail... These are applications that are submitted to two states - both to Ukraine and to Russia," Petrenko told journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to him, now there is the first ECHR judgment, which concerns an application filed by a resident of Luhansk. This person, the minister said, filed a lawsuit against Ukraine due to the violation of his right to freedom of movement, and the ECHR rejected the application, saying that in the occupied territory control and responsibility for human rights violations is borne by Russia.

"That is, if he had [filed a lawsuit against] the Russian Federation, the decision would have been different," Petrenko said.

According to the minister, this decision is a precedent and, accordingly, Ukraine takes the same position in other cases, on which citizens appeal to two states.

"I expect that in the near future, perhaps even this year, there will already be the first decisions on individual applications, which will clearly define a violation by the Russian Federation as a party that coordinates terrorists and has permanent military formations in Donbas," Petrenko said.